Saturday, January 16, 2016

We're delighted to have Jennifer Bosworth join us to chat about her latest novel THE KILLING JAR.

Jennifer, what was your inspiration for writing THE KILLING JAR?

Kenna Marsden, the main character in THE KILLING JAR, has the power to absorb energy from nature, which has a psychedelic effect on her. I got the idea after watching a video on YouTube of a proper, ladylike 50’s housewife trying LSD under the supervision of researchers. She went from uptight and shy to euphoric as she described the effects of the drug. She said she had never seen such infinite beauty in her life, and that she felt sorry for the scientist interviewing her because he could never understand the beauty she was seeing.

I was fascinated by the video, and began to imagine a group of people with the power to enter this kind of state through supernatural means. People have written about so many different kinds of supernatural powers (invisibility, flying, strength, shape-shifting, telepathy, telekenisis), but I couldn’t think of anyone who’d written about the power to enter a psychedelic state of euphoria and beauty. Considering how many people in the world seek out such experiences, it seemed like an untapped realm of supernatural possibilities.

How long did you work on THE KILLING JAR?

Too long, maybe. Long enough that I wanted to give up because I didn’t think it would ever be good, or that my editor would ever accept the book. All in all, it took over two years and four rewrites. It was a painful, soul-crushing process, and I wanted to quit many times. I actually gave up on the book near the end, and decided instead to adopt a little rescue dog that was a complete wreck (abused, feral, terrified of people, severely underweight). I put all my mental energy into nursing this dog back to health, and I was able to stop agonizing over the book and just write it. What did this book teach you about writing or about yourself?

Every book makes you a better writer, but this one taught me a lot about character, and how to dig deeper and deeper, to the point where I know everything about the person I’m writing.

What do you hope readers will take away from THE KILLING JAR?

For me, each book I write is actually two books, the action and the heart. On the surface, THE KILLING JAR is about a dangerous girl with a potentially destructive power who is sent to live on a bohemian commune, where she learns to master her abilities through a new way of life that may or may not be what it seems. But the book inside the book (the heart) is about a teenage girl who made a terrible mistake and can’t forgive herself for it. She’s consumed by guilt and shame, and her journey is to find a way to accept herself, to live with her own darkness. My hope is that readers identify with this journey. We’ve all done things we’re not proud of, things that make us wonder if we’re bad people, not deserving of love or forgiveness. These thoughts and feelings can be like a heavy shadow that we drag through life, or they can make us go numb with depression. We can live with these things for so long that we’re no longer capable of positive emotions. At its heart, this book is about finding a way through that darkness to what waits on the other side. What advice would you most like to pass along to other writers?

Don’t look down. That’s when you fall. Keep your head up and your eyes focused on the work. Not the result. Not the outcome of the work. The work itself.

ABOUT THE BOOK

She’s haunted by a violent tragedy she can’t explain. Kenna’s past has kept people—even her own mother—at a distance for years. Just when she finds a friend who loves her and life begins to improve, she’s plunged into a new nightmare. Her mom and twin sister are attacked, and the dark powers Kenna has struggled to suppress awaken with a vengeance.

On the heels of the assault, Kenna is exiled to a nearby commune, known as Eclipse, to live with a relative she never knew she had. There, she discovers an extraordinary new way of life as she learns who she really is, and the wonders she’s capable of. For the first time, she starts to feel like she belongs somewhere. That her terrible secret makes her beautiful and strong, not dangerous. But the longer she stays at Eclipse, the more she senses there is something malignant lurking underneath it all. And she begins to suspect that her new family has sinister plans for her…

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Author and screenwriter, Jennifer Bosworth, grew up in a small town where there was nothing to do but read and get into trouble. She did plenty of both, which led her to a career writing about people who get into trouble. Jennifer and her husband recently escaped from Los Angeles and are now hiding out in Portland, Oregon with a couple of long-legged dogs. In her spare time she can be found watching horror movies and dreaming of starting her own hippie commune, where there will be many goats. Learn more about her and view her short films at jenniferbosworth.com or just Google her and see what happens.

---
Have you had a chance to read THE KILLING JAR yet? Do you dig deeper and deeper into your characters? When writing a book, do you actually write two books? Share your thoughts about the interview in the comments!

MARTINA ON TWITTER

FAVORITE QUOTES

March 1st 5 Pages Workshop

Our March workshop will open for submissions on Saturday, March 3rd at noon, EST. Participants will be mentored by two published authors through three rounds of revisions and receive additional feedback from our literary agent mentor on their first five pages and their pitch.The agent mentor will offer additional feedback to the best of the five manuscripts in the workshop.

Featured Post

Happy Monday! We hope our American readers had a lovely Thanksgiving weekend. We're grateful to have another round of giveaways up for...

VISITORS

WRITING CONTEST

To keep subscribers from getting inundated by posts, we've moved our agent-judged writing contests off to Adventures in YA Contests, a separate site just for AdventuresInYAPubilshing.com contests. Stay tuned for a new contest starting soon!

AdventuresInYAPublishing.com sometimes receives books for free from publishers or authors in the hope that we will mention them on the blog, but otherwise we receive no compensation for writing posts or content on this site. We have no material connections to the brands, products, or services mentioned, except those by individual site members in their capacity as authors. Our posts often include convenient links, and a small commission may be paid on some of these if you purchase the item after clicking. We use the income from this and from sidebar advertising to help defray the costs of postage for mailing books to giveaway winners. Inclusion of a book on the site does not imply an endorsement unless the individual who authored the post specifically states that they have personally read the book or believes the product or service mentioned will add value to our readers.